Council injunction to combat antisocial travellers

Last updated: 29/09/2016 11:56:34

There has been an increasing problem of anti-social
behaviour caused by travellers setting up unauthorised encampments within the
borough. Walsall Council applied for and obtained an injunction from the County
Court on Friday 23 September. This injunction restrains anyone from engaging in
anti-social behaviour anywhere in the borough, and it highlights restrictions
on setting up encampments or causing a nuisance on 12 named sites. The sites
are:

1.
Delves Green Common

2.
Broadway West Playing Fields Wallows Lane

3.
Open space between Laburnum Road and Laurel Road

4.
Land opposite Laburnum Road, north of Walstead Road

5.
Land rear of the library at Fullbrook Playing Fields, West Bromwich Road

6.
Goscote Lodge Crescent

7.
Anchor Meadow Playing Fields

8.
Manor Farm Community Association Floyds Lane

9.
Land at Hawthorn Road – adjacent to Maple Drive/Grange Crescent and east of
Ford Brook

10.
Barns Lane

11.
Land between Stubbers Green Road/Rischale Way and Lichfield Road

12. Walsall Arboretum

Two of the sites are owned in part by Walsall Council and
Sandwell MBC who have joined together to obtain an injunction which covers the
entirety of these sites. One of the other sites is used in part by the Joseph
Leckie Academy as its playing fields. The academy has joined with the council
in these proceedings. When the council obtained the injunction it covered all
of the playing fields used by the academy.

The council focused its application for an injunction
restraining people from setting up encampments to the 12 named sites as these
were the sites which had, in recent times, been most heavily affected and were
the areas in which the local residents and businesses had been most seriously
disturbed by unauthorised encampments.

Councillor Sean Coughlan Leader of Walsall Council stated:
“In order to protect our residents who have been subject to some horrific
behaviour over the last 18 months we were determined to take action.

“Council officers have been working for months to get this
set up and it forms part of a phased approach to tackling the issues associated
with these traveller encampments.

“The council hopes that this injunction order will be
observed. We will not hesitate to take the legal steps to enforce it.

“Anyone who ignores this order of the court may be brought
before the court and could potentially face imprisonment or a fine, or even
both.”